John Oliver on stadiums

[AFDawg]

 

[Shooter McGavin.sixpack]

I love John Oliver. We all knew this was going on but his shows way of explaining it is great. That clause in the Bengals contract is beyond ridiculous. Why hell should the public be on the hook for any of that stuff?

 

[patdog]

It's not just sports stadiums. Many, if not most, major economic development projects include public financing. If the project works, it's fine. The taxes generated cover the debt service. But if it doesn't, the public is left holding the bag.

 

[FirstPoetsThenSunDoggy]

That's a great segment. It's disturbing to me that the life of a stadium is only 20 years. You try to be frugal and environmentally wise, and then you see your government destroying perfectly sound billion dollar structures. Makes it harder to not toss that trash out the window or toss those that good lumber on the fire.

 

[stinkfoot]

Went to the GA Dome last year, and I really liked it. Clean, plenty of room,

quick and easy access to concessions and bathrooms, easy access through MARTA. They are tearing it down to build another stadium right next door despite Atlanta's other concerns like traffic and crime. Makes no sense.

 

[patdog]

It's disturbing to me that the life of a stadium is only 20 years.

I still can't believe the Georgia Dome and Turner Field are about to be replaced. To me, they're still new stadiums and pretty damn good ones at that.

 

[Shooter McGavin.sixpack]

I'm a braves fan so the new stadium will be great for the team but as for the citizens of Cobb County...

 

[johnson86-1]

quick and easy access to concessions and bathrooms, easy access through MARTA. They are tearing it down to build another stadium right next door despite Atlanta's other concerns like traffic and crime. Makes no sense.

Low information voters. You can add a small burden to everybody's tax bill (which is what stadium deals generally do, directly or indirectly) and it's just noise along with all the other stupid stuff gov't does. Only a few economically literate and aware people will raise hell about how stupid it is, and they'll be ignored.

You become the politician that is responsible for the home town team leaving because you were too stingy and shortsighted to pay for a new stadium (also called economically literate), and you'll be chased out of town. All the businesses with an interest in the sports team will make sure you get hammered publicly, one of the most important being the local newspaper, which still needs local sports to help sell papers.

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

The worst part is there's no correlation between having a sports team and economic development no matter who pays for the stadium. Add in that the cities tend to pay tons of money for these sports teams and you end up with the cities losing out every time. But no mayor has kept his job running on a platform of letting a team leave a city because they aren't willing to buy a billionaire a new toy.

 

[seshomoru]

His show is fantastic.

He was good on the Daily Show, but that show is an everyday comedic piece that really just makes broad "how ridiculous is this" jokes. While he is still funny as hell, with only doing one show a week, he and his staff have had the opportunity to seriously dive deep into the investigative journalism arena as well. From Miss America to contract poultry farming... hell, he even flew to Russia and interviewed Snowden.

As for the stadiums, I'd love to see a city with the balls to say no sometime. Or at least get a deal done that shares some of the revenue. It's not a public investment if there's no money coming back. It's a hand out, and if you have issues with entitlement programs (social security, SNAP, TANF, ACA subsidies, etc), you should be damn pissed at public money given away to billionaires.

 

[Shooter McGavin.sixpack]

I think my favorite point in the video was that billionaire owners are acting like they are broke to get a stadium and the public buys it. All the while the owners just keep getting richer. It would take a politician with some kind of clout to go against the local teams. Just ask the mayor of Phoenix.

 

[aTotal360]

I remember reading stories about businesses around the Cavs stadium almost going belly up when Lebron left. I think there is some correlation, but certainly not nearly as much as the team owners want you to think.

 

[57stratdawg]

Plus, they don't really add that many jobs of substance to the local economy.

Most organizations have a bunch of people basically paid by the hour, a few people making low salaries, and then a bunch of millionaires and one billionaire at the top.

 

[MarkDallas]

As for the stadiums, I'd love to see a city with the balls to say no sometime.

All it would take is 2 or 3 cities to say no and I think that would be the critical mass needed to turn it around.

 

[seshomoru]

There's only one LA... and it's debatable how well they'd support an NFL team

What were the Braves gonna do if nobody in the Atlanta Metro threw millions of public dollars at them? Move to Birmingham? There's only so many cities that can support professional franchises, and we're pretty saturated as it stands. I agree with you. If a few cities just flat out said no then I think it would stop. Moving a team is pretty effing expensive.

 

[johnson86-1]

What were the Braves gonna do if nobody in the Atlanta Metro threw millions of public dollars at them? Move to Birmingham? There's only so many cities that can support professional franchises, and we're pretty saturated as it stands. I agree with you. If a few cities just flat out said no then I think it would stop. Moving a team is pretty effing expensive.

You joke, but there are a lot of midsized cities with idiotic leadership. Look at Glendale Arizona or whoever has the Phoenix Coyotes. Atlanta, with its size, combined with the fact that its sports market is much bigger than its population would suggest because there are so few professional teams nearby, would eventually have a baseball, basketball, and football team even if the Braves, Falcons, and hawks walked over not getting sweet stadium deals. But it could take a while. I think the NBA will encourage teams to avoid Seattle unless Seattle ponies up a stadium. They'll certainly use seattle as leverage to get existing teams stadiums, but if they have a team relocate to seattle without a free stadium, then basically all the large markets will know they don't have to do it in the future. As you said, it would only take a few. But it might not help the midsized markets though. Which midsized markets get teams and which don't might continue to be dictated by which taxpayers get screwed by a stadium deal.

 

[bonedaddy401]

I think you underestimate how many small towns on the edge of a major city that would happily pave the way for a sports team. Not to mention emerging cities like San Antonio who could support more than they already have.

 

[SheltonChoked]

1997 Houston agrees with you. No way the Oilers would ever go to Nashville. Bud is bluffing.

 

[Palos verdes]

Timing of the Georgia Dome was bad. If they had waited several more years they would have had an arena much more in line with modern technology.

 

[GloryDawg]

"Hang on to your Gangal" Great line.